Our View: Sept. 11 anniversary is for remembering

Published: Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013 5:30 a.m. CDT

By SHAW MEDIA

It has been 12 years since we watched steel and metal rain from the sky.

We watched in disbelief and shock as Islamic terrorist flew their hijacked planes into what seemed like impenetrable structures and a field, as heroes rushed into burning buildings, as the fatality count reached nearly 3,000 people.

We united, and we cried, prayed, raged and mourned.

Our country forever changed that day. Whether the changes wrought by 9/11 were good, bad, or somewhere in-between has yet to be determined.

We have yet to recapture the sense of solidarity the country exhibited in the weeks after the attack. Partisanship, not compromise, is now the way of doing business

We struggle to balance giving the government powers to keep us safe from the threat of terrorism with safeguarding the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

And we mourn the more than 6,600 U.S. soldiers who have died in the two U.S.-led wars promoted by that day, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The casualties include four from DeKalb County:

• Army Pfc. Christopher Alcozer of DeKalb (Nov. 19, 2005, Iraq)

• Army Spc. Ashley Sietsema of DeKalb (Nov. 12, 2007, Kuwait)

• Army 1st Lt. Brian Slavenas of Genoa (Nov. 2, 2003, Iraq)

• Army Pfc. Matthew Martinek of DeKalb (Sept. 11, 2009, Afghanistan)

The last U.S. combat troops left Iraq in 2011. More than 60,000 remain as part of the NATO force in Afghanistan, fighting to preserve the freedoms we cherish. We thank them, knowing our words don’t even start to compensate the debt all soldiers pay for protecting us.

But today shouldn’t be about the political fighting, or a debate about whether NSA eavesdropping is legal or other issues that get people’s blood boiling.

Leave that for tomorrow.

Today is about the nearly 3,000 souls who left the world too soon. It’s about the loved ones they left behind, who think about 9/11 more than once a year, and the thousands of others affected by the day our collective innocence was forever lost.